In some processes used in the semiconductor industry, it is desirable to heat a substrate rapidly to reduce the time it takes to process the substrate. Typically, rapid thermal processing systems utilize a high intensity light source to rapidly heat a substrate that is held within a processing chamber, sometimes under vacuum conditions. The high intensity light source, which may consist of an array of high intensity lamps, is located inside the chamber or outside of the chamber and adjacent to a transparent window through which the light passes into the chamber. Inside of the chamber the substrate is supported with very little physical contact (usually around the edge) so the substrate temperature can respond quickly to the incoming light. The front of the wafer is exposed and receives light from the high intensity lamps. The lamps are essentially black-body radiators and are heated as quickly as possible (typically 300 to 500 ms) to operating temperature. For many substrates, like silicon substrates as commonly used in the manufacture of integrated circuits, optical absorption is higher for shorter wavelengths especially at the beginning of a heating cycle when the substrate is closer to room temperature. Rapid silicon substrate heating begins after the lamps reach high temperatures (about 3000° C.) at which time the lamps begin emitting a significant portion of short wavelength light.
FIG. 1 shows a schematic cross-sectional view of a flood type rapid thermal heating apparatus in which a wafer 100 disposed in chamber 105 is heated by radiation from lamps 125 mounted on a chamber lid 120. The lamps 125 are typically tungsten-halogen lamps and may be brought to different temperatures to even the heat profile of the substrate. Pyrometry measurements may be made by monitoring light through windows 135 in the chamber 105. The rate with which the lamps 125 can be switched on is limited with typical heat lamps and results in limitations on how fast a substrate can be heated. A practical minimum for pulse duration using tungsten-halogen lamps is about 1 sec due to the reaction time of the filament.
Alternative light sources have been used to improve efficiency and to provide shorter pulse durations in order to stay within processing time targets. Flash lamps, which provide pulse durations of 100 μs to 1 ms, have a shorter pulse duration. However, when using flash lamps to heat a substrate, the maximum temperature of the substrate, or that of its near surface region, is limited by the pulse duration.
High efficiency lamps are lacking for pulse durations above about 1 ms. Therefore, high intensity substrate illumination sources which can provide pulse durations between about 1 ms and 1 sec are needed.